Why a Handbook for Native American Rape Survivors Is a Necessity

They’re the most at-risk group in the country.

For Native American girls, the discussion on sexual assault is no longer what to do if it happens, but when it happens. According to the Department of Justice, Native Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be raped than other populations. One in three Native women reports having been raped.

To address the crisis, the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center has created guide for Native girls called “What To Do When You’re Raped.”. The free, online manual gives girls advice on seeking treatment from a local clinic, how to get emergency contraceptives, and what services are available to them.

Charon Asetoyer, executive director of NAWHERC and contributing editor of the book said the sexual assault crisis among Native girls and woman isn’t a hidden issue. Walking onto a Native reservation, she said, it becomes obvious.
“If you were to come visit us on the reservation and see the young girls, 12- to 13-year-olds, pushing baby carriages, you would understand it in a minute,” she told the Huffington Post. “These are not pregnancies by choice — and their hopes and dreams of having a career and forming a family later on in life are gone.”

According to the manual, 92% of Native American girls who have had sexual intercourse report having been forced against their will to have sexual intercourse on a date, and that’s only the number of those who choose to report it. In the general population, 68% of sexual assaults go unreported. Because the number of Native women raped is so disproportionate to any other race or culture in the country, the NAWHERC chose “when,” over “if.”

“A young mother was in my office the other day, and she said, 'Charon, what do I tell my daughter when she’s raped?’” Asetoyer said. “That feeling is just overwhelming, but it’s true.”

Another thing stands out about sexual assaults on Native women and girls is that while rape in the general population is typically perpetrated by someone the victim knows, that’s not the case with Native women. Instead, Native women are mostly assaulted by non-Native men.

“People come into town — truckers, farmers, ranchers — and we have casinos, so people stay there and party up,” Asetoyer told to the Huffington Post. “They come in looking for Native women and young girls.”

If all this isn’t infuriating enough, when coupled with the complicated legal system governing tribal land — there are often disputes over who has jurisdiction over what land, making many cases hard to bring to justice — reporting a rape becomes even tougher than it already is.

“What To Do When You’re Raped” is a response by women, for women, in response to a crisis in full swing. With a lack of federal dollars to fund health services on reservations, the crisis shows no sign of stopping.

The book uses illustrations and storytelling to reach these Native girls, offering them a necessary message, Asetoyer said.